Processing payroll is even easier now with options such as excel and batch payments using Internet Banking. So why should you pay to use a HR software?

As one of our integrated HR software HReasily, a Singapore born-and-bred HR SaaS solutions platform, says, ‘if focusing on your core business is your top priority, than you need a HR software’. The remit of HR function has evolved significantly today, venturing into compliance, employee satisfaction and even local employment regulations during business expansion strategizing, which makes it essential for a results-oriented business leader to tap on HR softwares to automate and digitise as much of the workload as possible.

Payroll is often one of the biggest expenses for most small businesses but it is crucial in business management and employee satisfaction. Whether you are an accountant acting on behalf of your client, or a small business owner managing the payroll yourself, here are 3 ways HR software can transform your business.

Maximise employee satisfaction

90% of employees surveyed through Payboy, an easy-to-use compliant HR management software for any business size, were more satisfied due to the accuracy and timeliness of their payroll. Everyone knows that paying your staff the correct amount and on time is critical. Depending on your business pay cycle, calculating how much your employees should be paid each pay period can be a painful exercise. Also, let’s not forget the extra complexities of calculating overtime, holiday pay and benefits, to name a few. With the right HR software, all the calculations are done automatically for you. HR softwares like PayDay!, a cloud payroll & leave solution for small businesses (1-50) employees, also offers web and mobile solutions to enable employees to manage their leave on-the-go. You can now say goodbye to discrepancies, errors and understaffing that often results in payroll delays and headaches!

Compliance, compliance, compliance

Staying on top of statutory changes and contributions, calculating monthly CPF and declaring taxable income can be an administrative nightmare. Why don’t you let the Payroll Experts do that for you? With HR software, you don’t need to be an expert in payroll legislation to ensure that you are 100% compliant and up to date with changes from IRAS. Statutory deductions and contributions are calculated automatically, and with Talenox, a Payroll and Absence Management solution serving small and medium businesses in Singapore and Hong Kong, you can generate CPF file and submit IR8A simply with one click for Singapore. While over in Hong Kong, you can export MPF files and IR56B forms. When it comes to filing season, SimplePay, a HR software designed to make payroll simple and faster than ever before, takes care of it by offering reminders of pending due dates to prevent late submissions.

Cross-border scalability

As your business grows, it’s important to have tools that grow with you, as oppose to slow you down. If you’re looking to expand into other markets, it’s often not just about the size of your company, but the complexities of the HR policies in those different markets. HR softwares such as Gpayroll, the only fully automated payroll system in Singapore, offers localised payroll and tax logic for Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, Thailand and more. So instead of studying HR requirements of other markets as you expand, you can focus on growing your business! Beyond payroll, you can further streamline your HR processes with add on modules like leave, expense, timesheet and paperless onboarding management modules.

No matter if you’re starting up or growing your business, the biggest benefit of HR software is that all the work is completed for you. An added benefit of using a HR software in the cloud, is you can look for those that talk to your other business applications to truly automate your workflow and provide you with a single source of truth. With 9 Payroll + HR apps that integrate with Xero, it’s important to do your research and choose the HR software that will work for your business. Take a look here to find out more!

At Xero, we strive to create a positive environment where everyone feels they belong and that they can do the best work of our lives. We believe that supporting the mental wellness of our people is an essential component to running a compassionate, successful business.

That’s why we’re proud to announce that we’re marking World Mental Health Day by making changes to our Wellness Leave policy. The new policy means that Xero staff can now take time off for their own personal wellbeing, in addition to time off for physical or mental illness and when a partner or dependent requires care.

To learn more about the importance of fostering wellness in the workplace, the team at Xero Denver office had the opportunity to speak with Alexandra Yannacone from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She shared insights about how all of us can work to manage stress in the workplace and support our colleagues.

Yannacone explained that it’s important to understand that employees can experience workplace stress due to a variety of factors, including work-related or home-related issues. The good news, according to Yannacone, is that these stressors are something that we can do something about. For example:

Be proactive and preventative: “We know there are more stressful periods at work or in our personal lives, like the holidays,” Yannacone said. “It’s about being prepared and thoughtful ahead of time. Each year we fall into these same routines and start panicking, but often we know some of these things are coming. Same with work, most jobs we know when our more stressful times are. We need to learn how to declutter and destress ahead of time so when we’re in the midst of it we can really pay attention to the task at hand.”

Pay attention to your stressors: “Deep down a lot of us know what our stressors are and too often we avoid addressing them, but it’s important that we face them head on,” Yannacone said. “Ask yourself, ‘what is it and why is it stressing me out?’ If we figure out the root cause, often, we’re able to address that part of our life.”

Yannacone also explained that it is vital to develop techniques for recognizing stress in our coworkers. She said you might notice a change in a coworker’s behavior, like if they go from normally energetic and social to being isolated and pulling away. Once you recognize it you can address it and offer your support.

“Often, we project what we would find helpful for ourselves in these situations, but often it’s better to actually ask them what would help them,” Yannacone said. “A lot of the time we talk about stress – but it might be something bigger. It’s about helping them be connected and doing our best to be supportive. But if it’s something that’s out of our hands, it’s about making sure they have the connections to get support if they need it through an Employee Assistance Program or similar.

Finally, Yannacone discussed the importance of creating a positive work environment where everyone feels they belong and encouraging and supporting the mental wellness of employees.

“We’re open and we talk a lot about physical health in the workplace,” Yannacone said. “Workplaces will hold healthy eating competitions or encourage teams to participate in fun runs, and these are great programs to get people to think about their physical health, but we tend to neglect our mental health.”

“Mental health affects our work, relationships in the company, productivity and family life. If organizations aren’t addressing that they’re really doing a disservice to their employees. Think of it the same as physical health. Employees need to know there will be no judgment or repercussions if they surface issues with their mental health. Just like if someone came in to work with a broken leg, accommodations would be made for them. We haven’t yet made it completely okay to talk about mental health issues. But the more we talk about it, the more we allow there to be more openness about it and create an environment where, if people are struggling, they can get help.”

For me, as a Director of People and Performance, it’s about remembering each and every one of us is human. We all feel stress. We all carry burdens that have kept us awake at night. And we all deserve support when times get tough. (But the support I need will be different to yours.)

At Xero, we strive to create a positive environment where everyone feels they belong and can do their best work. Encouraging and supporting the mental wellness of our people is important to us, and this extends across our Xero small business community.

Because running a small business isn’t easy. While it can be one of the most rewarding things you ever do, it also demands a great deal of time and energy. Long days may become frequent and the number of ‘hats’ you wear may seem endless. But when we forget to find ways to switch off – to make time to manage our stress levels – we risk impacting our wellbeing and mental health.

As a time that’s dedicated toward education, awareness and advocacy, World Mental Health Day is a timely opportunity for us to reflect on ourselves – and our teammates – and seek and offer any support.

For many small business owners, stress tends to stem from financial pressures, sustainability of the business and cash flow. According to Xero Small Business Insights, only 52% of small businesses in Australia are cash flow positive.

Tom Larkin, the Director of accounting firm IEC Advisory, supports more than 100 agricultural businesses across central and western NSW and has seen the negative impact that financial strain can have on a business owner.

“In anticipation of the impending drought, farmers have done a lot of work in building reserves and being proactive, but it still hasn’t been good enough for this intense and sustained dry period.”

“For many, the hard work and difficult decision-making has, in their eyes, amounted to nothing. The seasonal conditions impacting on stock and land, coupled with the negative cash flow, has a massive toll on their mental health and wellbeing.”

Tools to help you feel in control with minimal resources

If you’re working in a small business, you may come across a time when you’re short on the time, resources or energy required to contend with a situation that’s been thrown at you.

Rather than working longer hours to keep up, experts suggest you make time to be conscious of the various demands and pressures – and consider the technology, tools and support available to help you work more effectively.

“It’s about managing your energy – such as your mind, body, emotions, and spirit – as much as your time,” says Arthur Papagiannis, the Founder and Managing Director of AP Psychology and Consulting Services.

“Fifty percent of a person’s mental health recovery is connection with others, 25% is lifestyle, including the right food, drink, and exercise, and 25% is psychological. There’s a lot that can be done through relationships with people and lifestyle changes, if you can find more time for yourself.

“If that’s all in check, we can manage things better. We’re often trying to manage other things, apart from ourselves. We need to get clarity and be able to approach things in a better way.”

Strategies and self-education for your small business

If you or a member of your team has been under pressure lately, Mr Papagiannis suggests the following strategies:

Find ways to manage your working hours and take regular breaks throughout the day.

Learn to say ‘no’.

Plan around deadlines and deliverables.

Make time to exercise, do yoga, relax with the family, eat well, undertake hobbies, and connect with family and friends – all of the things that usually drop off when we become stressed.

Establish systems to manage and improve cash flow.

Small business owners rarely have the support of a dedicated HR department. So for more ways to look after your mental health and foster a nurturing environment for your team, be sure to make use of the tools HeadsUp have created specifically for small businesses.

If you’re still struggling, don’t be afraid to seek support from family, friends or a professional. Speaking out is not a sign of failure; connections help us maintain our health and wellbeing – and find ways to be the best versions of ourselves.

Preparations are underway for our second series of Asia Roadshows which will take place on 20 November in Hong Kong and 23 November in Singapore. The events will be bigger and better this year and we are pleased to confirm an exciting list of exhibitors to join us at the events.

Xero Roadshows give accountants and bookkeepers the perfect opportunity to get to know existing and new Xero Marketplace apps in addition to discovering the latest technologies available in the accounting industry. Here’s a sneak peek of who you can expect to see on the exhibition floor this November:

The Amazon marketplace has millions of 3rd party sellers world wide and it’s growing fast. A2X allows accounting firms to specialise in helping Amazon seller clients so they can target this fast growing market. Catch them in either Hong Kong or Singapore and chat to them about becoming an Amazon accountant!

Looking for someone to handle your compliance work for you while you spend more time advising and servicing your clients? Connect does outsourcing, but differently. Make the change with Connect and you will see growth and profitability in your business as they provide you with qualified accountants that work on a per-job basis.

Interested to find out more about how you can make the best use of time with Connect? They will be at Xero Roadshow Singapore so chat to them on how their expert workforce can work best for you; scaling up and down as your firm needs to grow with no fixed contracts or seat fees.

Fueled by a fundamental belief that having access to financial services creates opportunity, PayPal is committed to democratising financial services and empowering people and businesses to partake in the global economy. Available in more than 200 markets, PayPal enables consumers and merchants to receive money in more than 100 currencies, withdraw funds in 56 currencies and hold balances in 25 currencies.

As FinTech becomes more and more of a necessity as you expand your business globally, grab all chances at Xero Roadshow Singapore to find out how Paypal eases your practice’s invoicing and your clients’ payments. Discover how Xero’s integration with PayPal creates a smooth experience for users and makes accounting reconciliation easier.

Have clients in the food and beverage industry? Is it challenging to keep track of their operations? That’s where Sapaad will come in handy for you – Sapaad is an all-in-one cloud point-of-sale (POS) that allows restaurants to manage operations effectively, drive business growth, and boost customer engagement.

Talk to their friendly advisors at Xero Roadshow Singapore to understand how connecting with Sapaad saves you time and effort when managing accounts for your F&B clients. Find out what you are in for as Sapaad and cloud technology revolutionise the restaurant industry worldwide.

Shopify is the leading cloud-based, multi-channel e-commerce platform. Shopify allows businesses of all sizes to design, set up and manage their stores easily across multiple sales channels including mobile, social media or even pop-up shops. With just one platform and a powerful back-office, businesses can obtain an overview of their performance with great accuracy and reliability.

Shopify currently powers over 600,000 businesses in 175 countries and has a growing number of customers all across the globe making the most of their integration with Xero. Don’t miss them at both Xero Roadshow Hong Kong and Singapore and explore how their powerful platform can benefit you and your clients.

Unleashed software is a dynamic cloud inventory management solution that is trusted by thousands of manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers in over 80 global locations. Businesses gain full visibility of their real-time inventory information including stock levels, location, and profit margins. Unleashed makes inventory management easier and more efficient so businesses can take control of their inventory health and scale their business with confidence.

Unleashed is integrated with Xero which allows your clients’ Xero accounts to be linked with their customers, suppliers, purchases, sales, stock journals, credits, and returns. Sounds interesting and want to know more? Head over to their booth at Xero Roadshow Singapore to understand better how enhanced inventory management can solve issues that your clients may be facing and how their partner program enables you to get the credit for solving these issues without getting embroiled in a lengthy setup process.

Automate everything – Workato is an intelligent nervous system for your modern enterprise. Workato creates recipes that automate workflows between your connected apps to complete tasks that are composed by you with a combination of apps, triggers, and actions. Rather than having all the apps launched and manually performing these tasks, you can set up business events to complete actions automatically on all relevant apps. Workato’s integration with Xero lets you automate workflows with all the apps that you are using in Xero marketplace.

Want to know more? Get your tickets for Xero Roadshow Singapore and let Workato experts give you an in-depth understanding of how it works to benefit your practice and your clients. What’s more, they will be giving away Workato drones and stickers, and cakes for treats! So don’t miss the chance!

This is just a snapshot from the exciting list of over 20 exhibitors you will get to interact with at the upcoming Xero Roadshows in Hong Kong and Singapore. Here’s the full list of confirmed exhibitors at both Roadshows:

Xero Roadshow Asia is an event not to be missed by forward-thinking practices across the region who want to stay up to date with the latest in cloud accounting. Spots are filling up fast – grab your tickets now!

The ability to seamlessly move money has always been at the core of our economy. It enables the exchange of value, makes it possible to build new businesses, and fuels long-term growth. It’s been with us, in one form or another, since the very beginning of civilization. In 9000 BC, people traded grain, cattle, and jewels. A generation ago, people relied on cash, cheques and paper invoices. Today, we have credit cards and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay.

The technology underpinning money movement has changed, but the fundamental needs of business owners have remained consistent. There are four key things that all business owners want to know: How much money do I have? Who do I owe? Who owes me? Am I making a profit?

At Xero, we’re always working to help our customers answer these four questions quickly and easily, so they can make informed decisions about what is right for the business. One of the most important ways we do that is by continuing to strengthen our open platform and partnering with leading companies enabling our customers to access all of their data in one place.

Xero + Stripe: Helping Businesses Get Paid Faster

One of our most important global partners is Stripe, an innovative technology company that provides online payments processing for internet businesses. Stripe’s mission is to grow the GDP of the internet and to help technology companies of every size build better and bigger businesses. The Stripe integration with Xero makes it easy for businesses to get paid faster because their customers can pay your invoices using their preferred credit or debit card. Find out how to add Stripe to your invoices here.

Last week, Xero’s Mary Buckley, Head of Financial Partnerships for the Americas, joined Jeanne DeWitt, Head of Sales at Stripe, to talk about the future of global payments on a panel at Stripe Sessions in San Francisco.

As Mary explained, “Xero’s primary focus has been to help small businesses understand how much money they have, what do they owe, what do others owe them and are they making a profit. Integrating with Stripe to help users manage payments, was a natural extension of our invoicing features to streamline the experience for business owners and their advisors.”

The Xero integration with Stripe provides small businesses with a way to send out invoices to their customers digitally, and offer the ability to pay via credit or debit card, or ACH credit. In doing so, a payer has more choice in how they make the payment and on average, merchants receive payments 10 days faster globally when a business uses Stripe. Xero automates reconciling any Stripe fees, saving time and money.

Stripe and Xero are committed to working together over the long-term to continuously improve the experience of their shared customers. As Stripe continues to invest in new product capabilities, Xero continues to explore new opportunities to deepen and expand the integration for the benefit of small businesses and their advisors.

Digital Payments Are Becoming a Baseline Customer Expectation

Digital payments are rapidly becoming the expected norm for all businesses. A recent Federal Reserve Study showed that while the use of commercial checks is declining by 3 percent annually, the use of card payments is growing by more than 7 percent each year. Even more importantly, the use of remote payments, such as those done over the internet, is increasing by nearly 16 percent, outpacing in-person payment growth of 8 percent. Another report shows that mobile payments have surged from 20 million users in 2015 to 144 million in 2017.

Xero is committed to working with partners like Stripe to make it easy for small businesses and their accountants to take advantage of leading edge payments technology. As Xero’s Mary Buckley puts it: “Our first job is to make it easy for businesses to adopt new payments technology. Doing so means that small businesses can get paid more quickly, and can unlock all insights that can come from payments data so that small businesses and their accountants can understand what’s happening inside their business and plan for long-term growth.”

By developing deeper customer and merchant experiences independently and in partnership, Xero is able to deliver an improved way of running a business, helping business owners to find deeper insights and more time to focus on the growth of their business.

The ability to seamlessly move money has always been at the core of our economy. It enables the exchange of value, makes it possible to build new businesses, and fuels long-term growth. It’s been with us, in one form or another, since the very beginning of civilization. In 9000 BC, people traded grain, cattle, and jewels. A generation ago, people relied on cash, cheques and paper invoices. Today, we have credit cards and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay.

The technology underpinning money movement has changed, but the fundamental needs of business owners have remained consistent. There are four key things that all business owners want to know: How much money do I have? Who do I owe? Who owes me? Am I making a profit?

At Xero, we’re always working to help our customers answer these four questions quickly and easily, so they can make informed decisions about what is right for the business. One of the most important ways we do that is by continuing to strengthen our open platform and partnering with leading companies enabling our customers to access all of their data in one place.

Xero + Stripe: Helping Businesses Get Paid Faster

One of our most important global partners is Stripe, an innovative technology company that provides online payments processing for internet businesses. Stripe’s mission is to grow the GDP of the internet and to help technology companies of every size build better and bigger businesses. The Stripe integration with Xero makes it easy for businesses to get paid faster because their customers can pay your invoices using their preferred credit or debit card. Find out how to add Stripe to your invoices here.

Last week, Xero’s Mary Buckley, Head of Financial Partnerships for the Americas, joined Jeanne DeWitt, Head of Sales at Stripe, to talk about the future of global payments on a panel at Stripe Sessions in San Francisco.

As Mary explained, “Xero’s primary focus has been to help small businesses understand how much money they have, what do they owe, what do others owe them and are they making a profit. Integrating with Stripe to help users manage payments, was a natural extension of our invoicing features to streamline the experience for business owners and their advisors.”

The Xero integration with Stripe provides small businesses with a way to send out invoices to their customers digitally, and offer the ability to pay via credit or debit card, or ACH credit. In doing so, a payer has more choice in how they make the payment and on average, merchants receive payments 10 days faster globally when a business uses Stripe. Xero automates reconciling any Stripe fees, saving time and money.

Stripe and Xero are committed to working together over the long-term to continuously improve the experience of their shared customers. As Stripe continues to invest in new product capabilities, Xero continues to explore new opportunities to deepen and expand the integration for the benefit of small businesses and their advisors.

Digital Payments Are Becoming a Baseline Customer Expectation

Digital payments are rapidly becoming the expected norm for all businesses. A recent Federal Reserve Study showed that while the use of commercial checks is declining by 3 percent annually, the use of card payments is growing by more than 7 percent each year. Even more importantly, the use of remote payments, such as those done over the internet, is increasing by nearly 16 percent, outpacing in-person payment growth of 8 percent. Another report shows that mobile payments have surged from 20 million users in 2015 to 144 million in 2017.

Xero is committed to working with partners like Stripe to make it easy for small businesses and their accountants to take advantage of leading edge payments technology. As Xero’s Mary Buckley puts it: “Our first job is to make it easy for businesses to adopt new payments technology. Doing so means that small businesses can get paid more quickly, and can unlock all insights that can come from payments data so that small businesses and their accountants can understand what’s happening inside their business and plan for long-term growth.”

By developing deeper customer and merchant experiences independently and in partnership, Xero is able to deliver an improved way of running a business, helping business owners to find deeper insights and more time to focus on the growth of their business.

For all the Apple lovers out there, this might mean being the first to wrap your hands around the irresistibly smooth all-glass design, or finally upgrading your old glitchy iPhone 6 to the new model.

If this is you, I’m guessing you’re focused on the opportunity to start afresh, buy a new case, clear all those apps cluttering your current device, and start playing with its new features. Right?

But have you considered the security aspects?

According to online security software vendor, Norton, the scary reality is that 978 million people in 20 countries were affected by cybercrime in 2017. In New Zealand and Australia, one in four small businesses experienced a cyber attack or hacking attempt.

“It’s an unfortunate fact that the impact of cybercrime is a reality for all businesses,” Xero Head of Security, Paul Macpherson, said at our recent conference, Xerocon Brisbane. “We continually remind all of our customers – small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers – to take precautions to keep their data safe from hackers.”

Sure, you’ll be eager to try the cool Face ID feature and of course you wouldn’t dream of breaking your shiny new phone. But are you mindful of how you’ll keep its contents safe too?

Obtaining a new phone is the perfect opportunity to get everything set up correctly right from the start. And if you don’t plan to upgrade your mobile phone, there’s no time like the present to make changes.

Are you too relaxed with your data security?

While many of us are looking for convenience of easy-to-find or easy-to-remember passwords, in reality you’re making yourself vulnerable to digital identity theft.

Xero Head of Industry, Matthew Prouse, says “the biggest mistake people make is keep highly confidential information in their phone, such as in ‘Notes’ or disguised as a contact. You’re walking around with a pocket of very sensitive data.”

Choose obvious passwords (such as your date of birth or cat’s name) that even your kids can work out

Replicate the same codes everywhere (such as your bank account pin)

Allow your computer or phone to automatically save passwords

Hand over old mobile phones to your kids without clearing all sensitive data first

Think about the worst case scenario: your phone gets stolen. For many of us, this doesn’t just mean losing a device. It also means losing passwords. And your digital identity.

Every day, there are reports of email accounts being hacked, phishing emails being sent with the aim of collecting credit card details and bank account numbers, and credentials stolen from one website and then used against other sites to see if username and passwords have been replicated.

Macpherson says over 80% of breaches occur via stolen or weak passwords, with email as the primary method of attack. So it’s highly important to keep sensitive employee and customer data safe via modern security practices, especially while running a sustainable and trusted modern business.

How can I improve my mobile phone security?

Now is the time to brush up on your security awareness.

Prouse recommends utilising apps such as LastPass and Google Authenticator for encryption and a second layer of security for important business and personal websites. However, you can’t just download them and consider yourself completely covered.

“As a business owner, your smartphone itself needs to be safe and secure too,” says Prouse. “Make sure there is a fingerprint scanner, facial recognition, and good password security.”

And when it comes to passwords, Prouse suggests thinking outside the box.

“You might like to check out Stay Smart Online for some good tips and policies around passwords. Don’t just use your date of birth, postcode, or banking pin numbers. Pick random numbers; the authorisation apps will remember them for you.”

It’s also key to remember that if you have an existing authenticator app setup on your old phone, you need to set it up on your new device before disposing of your old one.

Keeping it secure with Xero

At Xero, we know the importance of keeping your private information, well, private.

Since March 2018, we’ve been rolling out a two-step authorisation process (2SA) in response to the ATO’s new security framework. So in addition to your standard Xero username and password, you also have to enter a six-digit code provided by an authenticator app, like Google Authenticator.

All accountants, bookkeepers, subscribers and payroll administrators on Xero already have 2SA turned on. Everyone else accessing an Australian organisation will need to turn it on by the end of November 2018. Anyone who doesn’t won’t be able to log into their Xero account.

But don’t worry – you’ll be guided through the process.

“For Xero, security is a team effort,” says Prouse. “It’s about people understanding security, but we can only do so much. People who work for and in businesses need to respect the information and keep their digital identity as safe as possible.”

So if you’re getting your hands on the new iPhone X, take some time to set up the security as a priority. Because, admit it, downloading Instagram was otherwise first on your list.

It’s no wonder that Denver Startup Week is the largest free entrepreneurial event of its kind in North America. The event features a week of networking sessions, mentor hours, workshops, leadership spotlights and panel presentations – all designed to grow a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Colorado capital.

It’s why we’re proud to be involved in Denver Startup Week – this year we’ll be hosting a handful of panels designed to give your startup the tools and information needed to get started on the right foot. Here’s a sneak preview of what we’ve got in store.

There are so many industries or markets that are either terribly saturated or completely dominated by one or two competitors. For small business owners or startups, it’s difficult to make your voice heard and stand up and be seen, especially when considering the people and budget constraints most businesses face.

This panel, featuring Xero’s Marketing Director, Americas, James O’Connell-Cooper, will discuss what it means to be a “challenger brand” and will dive into some of the successes (and failures) that can result from going toe-to-toe with your competitors. He shares what attendees can expect from the panel.

“By definition, a challenger brand often lacks the resources of its competitors,” James explains.

“However, this can be your advantage – be scrappy and apply a creative and analytical mindset to your marketing strategy. Applying these skills in the right way will help you get the maximum return on investment.”

As a startup, it is sometimes hard to decide whether to search out investors, use credit cards or go through bank lending options to handle your business growth plans. It may also be difficult to know what options are available at specific stages of your business’ lifecycle.

In this session, featuring Xero Ambassador and Chief Number Cruncher at AccountingProse, Cristina Garza, you will learn what financial resources are needed to best position your company for investment, and what investors look for before deciding to lend. She shares her recommendation on where small business owners should start.

“There are many different avenues entrepreneurs can pursue when it comes to securing funding but the first and most important step is determining which KPIs matter most to lenders,” Cristina says. “Work with your accountant to establish how best the numbers can tell the story and by using a cloud accounting platform like Xero you can have them ready to present to potential investors or lenders in real-time.”

Finding and retaining great talent is one of the most expensive, time-consuming and challenging tasks facing small business owners. Yet, when you get it right, it can mean the difference between success or failure. Regardless of the size or state of your business, having the right people can make all of the difference.

Debbie Gunning, Talent Experience Manager at Xero, will feature on a panel that will discuss helpful tips and best practices when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent in the startup space. She shares some of the key insights you can expect at this session.

“Attracting talent to a small business requires creativity and a multi-faceted approach, with current employees and networking being key to finding top talent,” Debbie says.

“Incentivizing current employees though referral programs is an effective method of increasing applicants to an opening. Social media, recruitment events, and advertisements are also great tools. Once you have applicants, well thought out interviewing and onboarding programs will ensure your new hires are set up for success.”

Google, Slack, Xero, Shopify and so many other tech companies have opened up their products for developers to build on. Startups and developers are looking to these platforms as an opportunity to build quickly, with less overhead, and importantly reach new customers.

Sid Maestre, Lead Developer Evangelist at Xero, will feature on a panel that asks: with so many developer platforms out there, how do you evaluate them? Sid shares the benefits of developing for a platform with an open ecosystem.

“Platforms open up opportunities for developers to move quickly and iterate by removing the need to build everything yourself,” Sid says.

“Like open source, platforms solve common problems for developers, freeing up resources to focus on high value and unique solutions. By investing in a platform with an existing customer base, you gain access to those customers. Validate with potential customers before, during and after you build an integration to maximize success.”

These are just some of the valuable insights you can expect to go home with from Denver Startup Week. Join us for a week of connections, learning and more. We hope to see you there!

Yesterday, we experienced a technical outage which affected our users’ access to Xero.

The site went down at approximately 5pm New Zealand time, and was restored at 12.30am New Zealand time.

We know you’re wondering what happened. The nature of the problem made it very hard to diagnose. There are many problems that can exhibit the same symptoms.

We discovered a change was made to our network configuration. The change was incorrectly applied which meant some requests to servers inside that network failed. Our team worked around the clock to identify and implement a solution and to get the site up and running as quickly as possible.

Once the change was detected and reversed, restoration of service was instant, so customers could immediately access the Xero site again. We sincerely apologise for any impact this had on our customers’ working day.

We’re doing everything we can to build more resilience into our platform and reduce any risk of a similar issue in the future. Please rest assured that your data was not at risk at any stage.

This outage was disruptive, and we’re really sorry for the frustration and difficulty it caused you and your business.

We appreciate you bearing with us yesterday, and we’re disappointed we’ve let you down. Our site performance is extremely important to everyone at Xero, and we’re never happy with an outage of any length.

It’s National Payroll Week in the UK – an initiative organised by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP). It aims to demonstrate the importance of efficient payroll to the economy.

Payroll is crucial in business management and employee satisfaction. If payroll processes are locked down and run well, businesses will flourish.

If they’re not, payroll can be an administrative nightmare, shifting the focus away from what business owners love doing. Whether you are an accountant acting on behalf of your client, or a small business owner managing the payroll yourself, here’s how the right payroll software can help:

For accountants:

Payroll management has historically been the bain of an accountant’s life. They know their clients don’t want to get employee wages wrong. By combining a smart payroll system like Xero Payroll with Xero, it’s far easier to get the job done efficiently, and quickly.

Xero Me is an employee app that works with Xero Payroll. You can track time, mark holidays on a calendar and populate payslips. It’s not difficult to sell the benefits of the app to your clients – not only is the user experience seamless, but they gain the satisfaction of having all their important information in one place. It also means employees and employers benefit from more detailed reporting of their day-to-day activities.

There’s no need to manually input data from other spreadsheets. By using payroll software that automatically integrates with your accounting software, you don’t have to keep track of all the changes your team make or post journals.

There are a number of Xero partners saving time with Xero Payroll. Take Xero Gold Partner, David Hassel, Managing Director of DH Business Support and co-owner of XU Magazine. Xero Payroll has saved his firm twelve minutes per client per month. He’s reduced the time spent on admin tasks that detract attention away from helping the businesses he works with thrive.

As David explains: “When it comes to small businesses we don’t just want to give people a history lesson every year – we want to give them actionable insights that affect their business decisions moving forward. If you have the right data, you can tackle underlying issues within the company. It’s our job to make sure our clients really understand what’s happening so that they can move forward and build great businesses.”

Elsewhere, Danielle Cole, director at accounting practice, Whiting & Partners, commented on how Xero Payroll is helping the team: “Xero sorts everything, so there is nothing more for us to do at the end of the year. That saves us two hours per client compared to the system we used before. Clients love the paperless payslips and for me it’s easy to send them. I just press a button and off they go.”

For the small business owner:

Let’s be honest, you didn’t start your business just so you could spend time on admin tasks and payroll problems. Every spare moment that you have in the office should be spent on driving your business offering forward.

You really don’t want to get employee wages wrong. It’s the type of reputation that spreads fast and could cause problems when a business is hiring new people. It doesn’t bode well for employee satisfaction, not to mention the fact that it will cause you a headache to clear up the mess.

To avoid this, ensure you stay on top of leave, timesheets and payslips. Ideally, everything needs to be in the same format and the same place. If they’re tracked in different spreadsheets and google docs, it’s easy for things to get missed.

Using an app like Xero Me gives the satisfaction of having all the important information in one place. Employees submit their own timesheets, check their pay and manage leave requests – all from their smartphones. Aside from it being good for your employees, it’s good for business, too.

The great thing is that it reduces the amount of administration that businesses need to do. All the information that you need is accounted for, and as such is going to be more accurate, with less chance of employees being under or overpaid. Make sure you are aware of any regional laws around minimum pay periods – if you’re in the dark about this, you might end up breaking a law that you weren’t aware of.

Using an app likes Xero Me takes the hassle out of payroll by collating all the information you need and organising it in one place. Take a look here to find out more.

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